Times Will Expand Local News Coverage

The Los Angeles Times is expanding its local news coverage with five new geographic sections, beginning Friday with the debut of a weekly insert featuring news from the Crenshaw district, Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights and Leimert Park.

To be called Our Times Crenshaw, the section will be produced by Times Community News, which, like The Times, is a subsidiary of the Times Mirror Co. The section will contain news of local personalities, politics, schools and sports, and will be inserted into copies of The Times.

Other Our Times sections will debut within the next five weeks and serve the Simi Valley/Moorpark area, western Ventura County, Montebello and the Inland Empire. They will join Our Times sections begun earlier this year in the Conejo Valley and Santa Monica.

“People throughout Southern California have told us that they want high-quality coverage of local news and we believe that we can exceed their expectations with Our Times,” said Times Editor Michael Parks. “Our Times adds a rich layer of local reporting to The Times’ unmatched coverage of regional, state, national and international news.”

Robert G. Magnuson, senior vice president of regional editions for The Times, said, “The Times Community News team excels in community reporting and places an emphasis on hiring people who understand the area they are reporting on. Providing superior local news coverage is something we can do better than anyone else and it’s a great way to bring more readers to the paper.”

Our Times Simi Valley/Moorpark and Our Times West Ventura, serving the cities of Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo, are scheduled to debut Sept. 14 and to be distributed Mondays through Fridays.

Our Times Montebello will launch on Sept. 17 and be published on Thursdays. Our Times Inland Empire, serving Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Ontario and Montclair, also will appear on Thursdays beginning Oct. 1.